DANIEL STURRIDGE'S long-term future at Liverpool has been cast into doubt after Brendan Rodgers said his priority this summer would be to sign a striker who can play at a “top level every week.”

Liverpool manager Rodgers also said he was unsure whether Sturridge will play again this season due to a hip injury which continues to rule him out at West Brom today.

Rodgers was braced for the England striker missing part of the campaign given his history of injury problems, but has been left frustrated at being able to start Sturridge in only seven Premier League games.

He has seen Liverpool falter in the forward’s absence, compounded by Luis Suarez’s defection last summer for £75m to Barcelona, and recognises the importance of strengthening an attacking armoury which has barely fired this term.

“I am not sure (how many strikers I need), but I need one that is going to be playing and at a top level every week,” said Rodgers.

“He (Sturridge) is not fit and once he can show that consistency and fitness, you can see in his performance level that it’s a high one.

“But obviously he has missed lot of the season so we need to assess it. But either way if he’s not available, we need to have that support

“There always is that risk with those type of players with their speed and body type, but we have to hope with Daniel Sturridge this year was just an unlucky season and he can come back super-fit and super-strong because he has an immense talent.

“You can’t argue with that. He can be as good as any striker in the world with his talent.”

Put simply, Rodgers clearly feels he can no longer rely on Sturridge being Anfield’s only main striker but hopes renewed competition would bring the best out of him.

“The best ones do relish that. They enjoy the competition and playing with other top players,” he said.

Asked whether Sturridge, who has scored five goals this season compared to 24 last, will play again this term, Rodgers added: “I’m not sure.”

So Liverpool find themselves back in the same position as last summer when they sought to recruit a world class striker, but failed with a bid for Alexis Sanchez, who went to Arsenal, saw a move for Loic Remy collapse on medical grounds and ended up with Mario Balotelli.

Intriguingly, they had looked at Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke, who scored against them in last weekend’s damaging FA Cup semi-final defeat, but had reservations as to how quickly he would recover from an Achilles injury.

Sturridge missed five months of the season between September and February due to thigh and calf problems and has returned to the treatment table with a hip problem that first surfaced a month ago.

In his absence, Balotelli, Fabio Borini and Rickie Lambert have contributed four league goals between them and are all likely to leave this summer.

“It’s not rocket science you know,” said Rodgers. “We haven’t scored enough goals this year. We’re on course to be, if the sequence goes on, 60 goals down on last year. 60. That’s a huge amount.

“In the season before I came in we had got 49 goals – so you’re taking nearly a season of goals out the team. It’s quite simple: we need more of a scoring threat. We missed it immensely this year and obviously that has affected results.

“What the players have done to arrive where we have is credit to them without that. So in the summer we have to try and find goals again. We looked last summer and certainly will this summer.

“If we do that we have an opportunity again for it to be like our second year.

Liverpool is a huge attraction for any player so that’s something we will fight hard to do in the summer

Brendan Rodgers

“It can make a huge difference. If you look at teams who are successful they will have that - a consistent striker - and what that gives the rest of team is crucial. You saw it here with Suarez. The impact that kind of striker can have.

“It’s something that’s not easy to find.

“That’s our job. We have to find a way to attract them here. However long I am here or not, Liverpool is a huge attraction for any player so that’s something we will fight hard to do in the summer.”

Belgium striker Divock Origi, 20, will arrive at Liverpool having spent the season on loan at Lille where he has scored eight goals and Burnley’s Danny Ings is a target.

But Rodgers said the plan is not for an overhaul of a squad currently in fifth place in the table.

“There will not be many coming in,” he said. “Probably more going out than coming in.”